by Daniel Uthman, USA TODAY Sports

by Daniel Uthman, USA TODAY Sports

USC athletic director Pat Haden, a Rhodes Scholar and Trojans alum who played on two national championship teams, is beginning his fourth year as the schools director of athletics. In that position, he has found himself at the intersection of numerous developments in college athletics: His football program has the most prominent coaching opening in college football, he is lending his voice to the debate on the NCAA's ongoing restructuring efforts and last month he was named to the inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee.

I think there's the burden and blessing of history; 11 national championships, we've had some iconic coaches, plus this incredible history of great athletes and championships. In my mind, it's a great opportunity for someone, but it's not an easy job either. But we believe it's an attractive job.

Do you have a hiring timetable?

Whenever someone says yes. We haven't asked anybody.

Are there any outcomes in your position as an athletic director at a prominent university that you would like to see when the NCAA restructuring is complete?

The outcome I want to see is us taking much better care of our student-athletes. I think it's a travesty how we treat these kids to a certain extent. I don't think we need to pay players, but I think we need to do some very simple things like feed them. I mean, 20 percent of our kids are first-generation college students, and their parents can't send them $200-$300 a month to help to feed them. We have kids where at the end of the month their stipend check has been depleted. They literally cannot feed themselves. That's not right. I would start with, there are so many basic things we can do - feeding them, taking good care of them. There are billions of dollars awash in college athletics, and I don't think enough of them are being directed toward our student-athletes.

With the Playoff Committee, how would you like to see the discussions go to make sure it's a successful and robust process?

What you have is 13 people, or the 12 other people I'm on the committee with, who are interested in doing the work. It's going to be hard work. It's going to be a lot of time. I think you have people who are bright enough and who have made tough decisions, because at the end of the day we will have to make tough decisions, because at the end of the day the teams that are fifth, sixth or seventh are going to be quite upset.

But on the championship, I was lucky enough to play on two of them when the AP voted. And there were a bunch of sports writers, I don't know whether those guys were smoking cigars or drinking beers somewhere voting or whatever. And there was dispute of who the second team was when we won. So the BCS has its concern if you finish third. Those fifth, sixth, seventh teams - I don't think we're ever going to get over that. All we can do is work our tails off, which we will, to try to create a playoff system or playoff teams that people will think is fair. I think people on this committee have the integrity and the work ethic to at least attempt to do that. It's not going to be easy, though.

Do you think you're going to be watching football from dawn until 3 a.m. on Saturdays?

That's one of the things we're going to have to discuss. Do we really need to vote 1 through 25 to try to get to four? I don't know. Because if you vote 1 through 25, you really have to follow 32 teams, right? These are the kind of things I think we're going to talk about when we're there (at the committee's first meeting in Washington, D.C.).

It's going to take some time. I think with technology today it's a little bit easier. If you watch a game now with 23 commercial breaks, it takes you a long time. I think there's about 7½ minutes of action in a football game, so you can get through a lot of games pretty quickly. But I know personally I will be blocking out times whether it's midnight or 6 a.m. to really watch a lot of this. And there's a lot of data, too. It's common opponents, inner-division record, winning on the road. I have been to every great venue, and I broadcast college football for 25 years. I've been to LSU. I've been to Auburn, I've been to Tennessee. I've been to Michigan. I've been to Tuscaloosa. I've been to these places, and I know Oregon and Stanford and how hard it is to win at Washington. So I think I think I have a pretty good feel for the landscape. Winning on the road at Oregon, winning on the road at LSU - that's significant to me.

What's something about the athletic director job that has been a surprising challenge?

On the plus side, the quality of our Olympic athletes is phenomenal. Incredible students and the world's best athletes. We had 41 kids, I think, in the Olympics last summer. While I knew we had a good Olympic program, I've been flabbergasted how good the quality of kids they are and the athletes they are, and also some of our best students.

I think the other thing that's surprised me is just how many mental health issues young people have today. That's been a big surprise to me. It's not just student-athletes, but I see it on the student-athlete side because I check with my contemporaries and other (athletics directors) and also the university. There's just a lot more anxiety, depression, A.D.D. that young kids, people, are dealing with. That's been a bit of a surprise.